Ex-Port Authority deputy Baroni lands job with well-known law firm

Bill Baroni, the former top Gov. Chris Christie appointee to the Port Authority who resigned in December just ahead of the eruption of the George Washington Bridge scandal, has a new job.

The Princeton law firm Hill Wallack LLP announced Wednesday that Baroni had been hired as counsel, citing his previous experience with practicing nonprofit, campaign finance and election law.

“We are delighted to have Bill join the Hill Wallack LLP team,” Managing Partner Bob Bacso said in a prepared statement. “Bill’s extensive experience in business and finance and education and nonprofit sectors will prove to be very beneficial to the firm’s clients.”

The four-paragraph announcement made no mention of the George Washington Bridge or lane closures.

Baroni, a Republican and former New Jersey state lawmaker who represented Mercer and Middlesex counties, was appointed to the bistate agency in early 2010. He served as deputy executive director and as Christie’s second-highest appointee there until stepping down Dec. 13, as news swirled around the September closure of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

At the time, Christie dismissed the issue as a "whole lot of hullaballoo" but said he was accepting Baroni's resignation because of the distractions it was causing. But the release of Port Authority documents only weeks later linked Baroni to the lane closures, which have since been tied to political retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich.

Baroni’s resignation in December came alongside that of David Wildstein, another Christie appointee to the Port Authority, who was on the receiving end of the now-infamous email that read, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." The email came from Bridget Kelly, a deputy chief of staff who Christie fired in January.